A draft law completing the necessary institutional prerequisites for the Athens International Airport ‘Eleftherios Venizelos’ (AIA) shares to be traded on the Athens Stock Exchange, tabled on Friday, passed in Greek parliament on Thursday.
The bill was approved by majority vote by ruling New Democracy’s deputies and rejected by all opposition parties as being essentially a privatization of the airport without benefit to Greece.
Countering criticism, Deputy Finance Minister Thanos Petralias said that it was a move of strategic importance, unlike a previous government’s plan to sell AIA to a fund.
The bill ratifies the December 7 agreement between the Greek state and AIA that amended that initial agreement (1995) on the airport’s development in order to trade the shares. Some of the amendments include abolishing restrictions on non-state shareholder ownership of shares and changes related to corporate governance, particularly changes in management roles.
Currently, the shareholders of AIA include the Superfund (25%), the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (30%), subsidiary Avi Alliance Gmbh (40% + 60 shares) of Canada-based insurance fund PSP Investments, and the D. Kopelouzos family (5% – 60 shares).
The 30% held by HRADF will be available to institutional investors and the investment public, as well as to existing private shareholders through private placement.
Aegean Airlines
The same draft law, which also passed parliament, includes the ratification of the agreement with Aegean for the buyback purchase of the company’s stock options (warrants) for 85.4 million euros, an amount the state has already received.
Aegean bought back the company’s stock options issued in 2021 in the context of getting financial support during the coronavirus epidemic. When the agreement with Aegean was reached in 2021, the stock price was 5.5 euros. The price taken into account to calculate the amount the state would receive (the average share price between August 11-November 3, 2023) was 11.43 euros. If the process had taken place today instead of early in November, the state would have received 2.8 million euros less.
Petralias responded to criticism on the state subsidizing the company with 120 million euros during the Covid-19 crisis to receive back 85 million euros. He said that the 120 million the state provided to Aegean Airlines, approved by the EU’s competition agency, was not a loan but a subsidy along the lines of other countries (Italy, Portugal, Croatia, and Austria) that subsidized state-imposed shutdowns without receiving anything back. On the contrary, in Greece, under the first subsidy’s terms the state benefited from the spike in share price, to receive the 85 million, he said.
